Hired and Not Necessarily Prepared

Submitted by Scott Jaschik on October 3, 2006 - 4:00am

Writing skills earned poor grades, applying technology earned good grades, and four-year colleges outperformed community colleges in a survey of corporate human resources officials on the skills of new employees.

The survey[1] -- released Monday by a business group, the Conference Board -- is most critical of the skills of those graduating with just a high school degree. Ratings were so poor there that the respondents indicated that they would shift hiring to those with more education. Of employers surveyed, 28 percent projected that they would reduce hiring of those with only a high school degree, 50 percent said that they would fill more of their positions with community college graduates, and 60 percent anticipated increased hiring of four-year college graduates.

Still, the grades were not stellar for college graduates -- and especially for those graduating from community colleges.

In seven areas, at least one in five respondents found community college graduates deficient (on a five-point scale from deficient to excellent) in skills they had identified as important:

Skills Seen as Deficient in Community College Graduates

Skill

% HR Officials Seeing Deficiency

Written communications

47.3%

Writing in English

46.4%

Lifelong learning / self-direction

27.9%

Creativity / innovation

27.6%

Critical thinking / problem solving

22.8%

Oral communications

21.3%

Ethics / social responsibility

21.0%

In only one category -- information technology application -- did at least one in five 5 HR officials rate community college graduates as excellent. In that category, 25.7 percent ranked the graduates excellent.

For graduates of four-year colleges, at least one in five found the new degree holders deficient in three categories.

Skills Seen as Deficient in 4-Year College Graduates

Skill

% HR Officials Seeing Deficiency

Written communications

27.8%

Writing in English

26.2%

Leadership

23.8%

In 9 categories, at least one in five found four-year college graduates excellent.